Working Mum's, Real Life, Real Issues, Real People

It’s almost Christmas folks and wow, what a year it’s been! For those of you who know me and know me well (there does have to be a certain amount of understanding when it comes to me), you will understand that I am inwardly positively bursting with excitement and doing everything possible not to break out into a rash! I love, love love this time of year. I love seeing my friends and family. Time off work. Giving presents and most of all……. come on, you all think it just daren’t admit it, I love receiving gifts! Now I’m not materialistic, but I do like something to open. The mere fact that someone has thought about me enough to buy me a gift is awesome. Roll back in time and Janet (the mother) once said to me “You only got a couple of gifts this year because your behaviour has been less than satisfactory” (or words to that effect). Quite harsh for a 13 year old to hear. I remember that Christmas well, especially because when I opened my few gifts I was utterly over the moon. She had bought me a keyboard and not one of those small jobs either. It was a super duper huge one with a whole range of different beats and sounds. By the end of Christmas day I was playing like Ross from Friends! If you want to find out the meaning of narcissism then just ask me (or click the hyper link of course) – I grew up with a Mother bearing a great likeness to such a personality disorder. Enough of her for now – except speaking of her does remind me to ask…… Did anyone see that programme on channel 4 the other night, ‘Psychopath Night’? Certainly some food for thought in there and I for one think I know 1 for sure – possibly 2…….. Scary!

Anyway, let’s review the year. Towards the end of 2012 I lost my job which was pretty pants to be fair. Depression set in and anxiety was at it’s peak. Come January I was dabbling with the idea of freelance work. By February I had an invested business partner who to date has proven to be encouraging, supportive, consistent and a complete pain in my ass! I won’t mention names – you know who you are and in all seriousness, you have helped towards me gaining back my confidence and plodding on. We now have a fully functioning business, http://www.viableseo.co.uk/ with office space and a heap of great clients. Balancing the business, the children and the Darren has been difficult to say the least but I wouldn’t swap it for the world. I am lucky to have monstrous amounts of support from every angle. So that’s the business in a nutshell. Moving forwards and looking forward to writing about it again this time next year – see how far we have come then.

Remember the sister with the boob cancer? She is well on her way to recovery. Chemo is now complete and her op is scheduled for early January. The consultants, doctors, nurses and randoms who have viewed her baps and bap results are all extremely happy with her progress. In light of this fantabulous news, we shall be throwing said sister a (wait for it) par-titty in March. Excited much! Going to make it a bit of a fund raiser with ‘boobie prizes’ and everything – inventive I know! Proud of her I am. Over the last few months, whilst she has been suffering, I have been swishing my long blond locks in her face whilst granting her every wish, simply because ‘I’ve got cancer Helen so you have to’! Eek – this is one old pictire – 1998 I think!

My girls….. wow – they are now 11, almost 7 and 4.5. They continue to drive me to complete and utter distraction by winding me, each other and their dad up on a daily basis. Mornings continue to be a military operation that involve ‘put your shoes on, get your coat, have you brushed your teeth’, over and over again. As a family, we haven’t learned and still scrabble around making packed lunches at 8:15am each morning whilst cursing at the fact life would be so much easier if we made them the night before. Such is life…… still wouldn’t swap it. What makes me proud is little moments such as today. My youngest came over and looked up at me with her huge brown eyes (she looks like a Yoohoo) – she cuddled my legs and said ‘mummy I really love you’ – what more could a parent ask for? My middle daughter who suffers with a bladder problem is now completely dry at night. Now THAT’s an achievement that makes me proud – let alone the fact she has been given a reading age of around 11! As for the eldest….. well, what can I say? She has almost completed primary school with flying colours. She is a polite, intelligent, beautiful girl who I hope will remain always happy. That’s all I want. When I look at these girls, I know that no matter what else is going on in my life I have done 3 things right. Dead clever ‘me like’ (gotta ‘av a bit a boro in there)!

Friends – I think I may have ticked a couple off over the course of the year but my true friends have been here throughout. The friends I remain closest too are those who understand that constant contact is not necessary. I see some of them only a couple of times a year if that come to think of it, but always know they are there for me. All in all, I am, pretty rich when it comes to family and friends – one lucky gal!

I think that’s it for now – as ever I haven’t spell checked or re-read because my blogs are off the cuff. It’s my online diary that I write when I get two seconds to scratch my bum before I’m off breaking up siblings arguing, cooking, cleaning or tweeting for clients! Life is busy, life is full, life is fun, life is positive.